Dr. Yahia Abdul Rahman, Corporate Advisor
Chairman and Resident Shari'aa Advisor, American Finance House - LARIBA, USA
Dr. Yahia Abdul
Rahman has more than 38 years of highly diversified experience in
banking and oil and gas industries. His area of expertise lies in
International Banking, Project Financing, Small and Medium Size Business
Lending, Community Banking, Bank Management, and financial services.
Dr. Yahia began his impressive career as a
Senior Research Engineer, then as a Senior Strategic Planning
Consultant/Corporate Planning division and as Manager of Foreign Crude
Oil Acquisitions at Atlantic Richfield Company in Los Angeles. He was
one of the founding member of the Industrial Bank of Kuwait and later
became the Manager of the Projects Department in charge of major
projects, problem company restructuring, computerized the Projects
Department at the Bank, and trained a new generation of Kuwaiti
Industrial Bankers. He was also a member of the Founding Board of
Directors of a US bank in Houston-Texas.
Currently Dr. Yahia is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer with
Bank of Whittier, which saw the first bank in the US history to offer riba-free financing since
2003. Dr. Yahia is also the Founder-Chairman of American Finance House-LARIBA
in Pasadena California, which offered Islamic Financing to the community
since July 1987.
Among his duties
included credit underwriting and lending to small and medium-size
businesses, large size petrochemical project financing, as well as
acquisition and start up of banks. He has an extensive experience
analysis and portfolio management of Stocks & Bonds for high net worth
individuals and institutions.
Dr. Yahia has an
extensive experience in Corporate Strategic Planning, Equipment,
Business Appraisals (Candidate Member of the American Society of
Appraisers-ASA) and Contract Negotiations and Administration.
He has also written
a book entitled “Interest Free Islamic Banking - LARIBA BANK: Foundation
for a United & Prosperous Community” (1994) and author of many papers on
Faith-Based Financing & Financial Instruments. He is a renowned speaker
at major International Faith-Based Finance Forums at Harvard University
and in Singapore, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States.
He has also been an invited speaker in Malaysia since 1994, which
include the Central Bank’s Executive Seminar (2001), Kuala Lumpur
International Summit on Islamic Banking and Finance (2001), the
Securities Commission (2002), the IKIM Gold Dinar Seminar (2002), Labuan
2002 Lecturer Series and many other conferences and talks. He was also
one of the speakers at the International Conference: The Ummah at the
Crossroads: The Role of the OIC in October 2003.
His other
remarkable accomplishments include being appointed as Chairman of
Islamic Shura (Consultative) Council of Southern California, USA, a
shura which represents over 500,000 members in the area. A top of the
class student during his college days, Dr. Yahia received his B.Sc. in
Chemical Engineering from Cairo University, MS and Ph.D. in Chemical
Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and obtained his MA
in International Management and Finance at the University of
Texas-Dallas. He is also an Elected Member of the University of
Wisconsin, Madison Phi Kappa Phi (1972).
Dr. Yahia served as the President of the
Muslim Students Association of Madison, Wisconsin, the President of the
Islamic Association of North Texas in Dallas, Texas, and Finance
Chairman of the Islamic Centre of Southern California Los Angeles. He
has founded several Islamic groups including the American Finance House-LARIBA.
Born in 1944 in the city of Cairo, Egypt, he
has a keen interest in building institutions and organisations both in
business and community affairs and activities.
Link :
http://www.lariba.com
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